The Oral History of Royal Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate: An Interview with Sallama Dako

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 273-291
Author(s):  
Sean Stilwell ◽  
Ibrahim Hamza ◽  
Paul E. Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sokoto Caliphate ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Royal Slavery ◽  
Official Sources

A powerful community of royal slaves emerged in Kano Emirate in the wake of Usman dan Fodio's jihad (1804-08), which established the Sokoto Caliphate. These elite slaves held administrative and military positions of great power, and over the course of the nineteenth century played an increasing prominent role in the political, economic, and social life of Kano. However, the individuals who occupied slave offices have largely been rendered silent by the extant historical record. They seldom appear in written sources from the period, and then usually only in passing. Likewise, certain officials and offices are mentioned in official sources from the colonial period, but only in the context of broader colonial concerns and policies, usually related to issues about taxation and the proper structure of indirect rule.As the following interview demonstrates, the collection and interpretation of oral sources can help to fill these silences. By listening to the words and histories of the descendents of royal slaves, as well as current royal slave titleholders, we can begin to reconstruct the social history of nineteenth-century royal slave society, including the nature of slave labor and work, the organization the vast plantation system that surrounded Kano, and the ideology and culture of royal slaves themselves.The interview is but one example of a series of interviews conducted with current and past members of this royal slave hierarchy by Yusufu Yunusa. As discussed below, Sallama Dako belonged to the royal slave palace community in Kano. By royal slave, we mean highly privileged and powerful slaves who were owned by the emir, known in Hausa as bayin sarki (slaves of the emir or king).

scholarly journals Solidarity: The Social History of an Idea in Nineteenth Century France

1959 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. S. Hayward
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social History ◽  
Grand Nombre ◽  
Human History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nineteenth Century France ◽  
History Of

The survival of a concept is generally only secured at the price of an intellectual odyssey in the course of which it is transformed out of all recognition. The nineteenth century fortunes of the idea of solidarity exemplify this axiom only too strictly. It became the victim of a multiplicity of ingenious puns and metaphors as well as outright malicious distortions that rendered a simple, technical word, drawn from the sphere of jurisprudence, at once emotive and obscure, influential and diffuse. As the eminent and caustic critic of the twentieth century, Julien Benda, formulated this vital problem of the fate of concepts, “pour l'historien des idées des hommes, la réalité ce n'est point ce qu'ont été les idées dans l'esprit de ceux qui les ont inventées, mais ce qu'elles ont été dans l'esprit de ceux qui les ont trahies… car il est clair qu'une doctrine se propage d'autant plus largement qu'elle est apte à satisfaire un plus grand nombre de sentiments divers.” This pessimistic view has been all too frequently verified in human history.

Running Away from the Palace: Chinese Eunuchs during the Qing Dynasty

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
MELISSA S. DALE
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Running Away ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Continuum

AbstractBy exploring cases of runaway eunuchs, this paper aims to contribute to understandings of unfree status during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and more broadly to the reconstruction of the social history of eunuchs. The abundance of cases in the historical record of palace eunuchs running away, often repeatedly, reflects poorly on the imperial court's treatment of its eunuchs and effectiveness at times in controlling its eunuch population. Confessions from captured eunuchs reveal that for many life serving as a palace eunuch proved too restrictive and too oppressive to endure. The repeated flight of eunuchs suggests that for some, the possibility of punishment was preferable to continued service and waiting for an authorised exit from the system due to old age or sickness. As the majority of palace eunuchs were illiterate, cases of runaway eunuchs give voice to eunuchs and reveal: (1) the tensions that characterised labour relations between the imperial household and its eunuch workforce and (2) that eunuch status does not fit neatly into the binary of free or unfree status, but rather is something more complicated that lies on the continuum in between.

scholarly journals Alex Grant and the Big Ditch

2017 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-183
Author(s):  
Roberta M. Styran ◽  
Robert R. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Valuable Source ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technological History

The technological history of the building of the Welland ship canal (1913-1932) is well recorded with photographs, documents, maps and plans in various archives. On the other hand, the social history of this saga is harder for the reader to discover because the engineers, contractors, and labourers have left little trace of their experiences “on the ground.” Fortunately, a diary kept by the engineer in charge, Alexander J. Grant, has come to life. Covering the longest period of construction, it chronicles the day-to-day problems of a hard-working, intelligent professional -- but also offers glimpses into the emotional and social life of the man. It will be a valuable source for a future biographer of this remarkable engineer.

scholarly journals Nueva Mujer y nuevas Electras: aproximaciones a la mitología clásica en el teatro burlesco victoriano

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Monrós Gaspar
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social History ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Electric Light

Abstract: This paper seeks to analyze Francis Talfourd’s Electra in a New Electric Light (1859) as related to the Victorian stereotype of the strong-minded woman. After a brief introduction on the links between nineteenth-century burlesque and the social history of women in Victorian times, I shall focus on the figure of Electra as epitome of late nineteenth-century representations of New Women.Resumen: Resumen: El objetivo de este trabajo es el estudio de Electra in a New Electric Light (1859) de Francis Talfourd a partir del estereotipo victoriano de la strong-minded woman. Para ello, tras comentar la relación existente entre el teatro burlesco decimonónico de tema clásico y la historia social de la mujer a lo largo del siglo, nos centraremos en la figura de Electra, y en cómo, acompañada de otras heroínas clásicas, anticipa la representación de la Nueva Mujer de finales de siglo.

A light burden: cultural discourse of light in Japan

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-134
Author(s):  
Lok Hang Hui
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Local Case ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Post War

PurposeThis paper explores the sensory experiences and cultural meanings of light in Japan in relation to Japanese changing lighting practices. It demonstrates that these sensory experiences and cultural meanings form an integral part of social life in Japan.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a blended approach that combines historical research and ethnographic data in the research on the meanings of light. The findings are presented in three parts. Two of them describe the social history of light, and the third draws on ethnographic data collected in suburban Japan.FindingsThe findings suggest that light in Japan has maintained a close symbolic connection with certain positive values despite the changing lighting practices. For example, light is related to cleanliness in early historical records on candle-making. In post-war Japan, new light metaphors such as “bright family” were invented to accommodate new aspirations for modernity and progress. In the latest development, the moral dimension of light is emphasised. This is evident in the concerns on being seen as a “bright person”, a person with a cheerful personality. Light in this way is related to the sensory experience of feeling a “social weight”, the pressure for one to act according to social norms.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to our anthropological understandings of light. It also provides a local case study of Japan, supported by original ethnographic research conducted by the author.

scholarly journals Rurality, ruins and archives: mapping the architectural history of the Greek countryside.

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 08004
Author(s):  
Afroditi Maragkou
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Greek Landscape ◽  
Rural Part

What remains unexamined and undervalued in the Greek landscape, are the extreme and abandoned limits of the small non-metropolitan regional areas. At the limits of Greek cities, we can identify a great dispersion, a marginal instability, states of transition and deposition. The architectural and planning policies of the Greek state, through the modernistic period, have set a significant number of traces on the rural part of the country. These traces on the countryside, can only be recorded and historically analysed through systematic approach and subjective mapping, such as the methodology of oral history promotes. The landscape of the lowlands of Thessaly is selected as a paradigm of a changing reality, where one can see and recognize a number of exemplary transformations and specificities. The resettlement phenomenon of the mountain populations in Karditsa region, which was affected by the reclamation infrastructure of the 1960s (construction of Megdova dam), is the springboard for a dispersion of new residential settlements in the lowlands. This relocation process had a significant impact on the transformation of the rural landscape of Thessaly, as well as on the social life of the countryside. The architectural and historical research is motivated from the current ruin condition of these promising residential settlements on the countryside of Thessaly and systematically examines the policies that lead from the construction of Megdova dam to these abandoned traces on the landscape. The methodology of this research is based on an ongoing microhistorical archive which aims to raise microhistory as the main interpretation tool. Composed by oral testimonies, historical sources, state documents, blueprints and other official recordings, this microhistorical archive will be able to map andinterpret the architectural, topological and social history of these modernistic interventions on the countryside of Thessaly.

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